This New Moon comes in on this Monday, on the last day of this month, on Halloween, or Samhain. Pronounced Sow-wen, this is also known the Witch’s New Year. We can celebrate our harvest so far, as the Wheel of the Year turns. It is time to decide what needs to be collected, burned, and composted before moving on to greater things. This is the time that the veil is thinnest; we can build an altar, connect and honor our ancestors, ruminate on our lives and legacies.

The cards that got pulled for this upcoming New Moon are:

Past: Judgement

Present: 8 of Pentacles

Potential Future: 6 of Wands

This will be a potentially change-making time period if we work on getting grounded and rooted. It is time to appreciate all that we have as well as summon our resources to manifest at higher levels. There is a promise of future success, if first clarity around what we are really fighting for gets defined. If we continue our focus and find opportunities and flow within it.

The card here that represents the past is Judgement. Judgement is a card about that which you can no longer ignore. Truths ring out to you at a deep personal level, the types of manifestations you must carry out if you are to evolve up onto the next rung on the ladder of life. The past leaps up, ripe for a soul retrieval. If we don’t address certain issues, they become tormented nightmares. You are at a crossroads—the whisper has become a voice has become a moan has become a scream. The urging of judgment is to make a decision. Act on what you now you must, on what has never left you over the years. Rise up in spirit of surrender. The Salvador Dali deck shows us Jesus rising from the dead. The planetary ruler of this card is Pluto: death, destruction, transformation, and rebirth. Pluto also rules Scorpio, the sign this New Moon is in.

Our subconscious can offer us the missing puzzle pieces. What are you resurrecting, how much of it is automatic, and where will new spaces crack open for absolute truths to bleed out? I think about the saying: “Only God can judge me.” At the end of the day the only judgement that matters is your own. Do what you think is right, what resonates with your gut through all of the noise or doubt around you. It is time to get right with yourself. Purge the bullshit. Burn it all down. What are some almost dead, repetitive thought forms that must be put to rest? What messages are you receiving about your work, your body, your relationships that you must act upon? As of late, there are many urgencies that at a collective level we can no longer ignore. We all must act upon what we know to be true, what is right for all of us on Mother Earth.

Presently, the New Moon brings us the opportunity of flow through dedication and focus. The 8 of Pentacles lets us know that hunkering down and digging into just a few aspects of our life will be rewarded. Perhaps we can also read this as hunkering down into the transformation, into the composting of our pain into peace. Whether it is a new skill or an on-going endeavor, gently put your blinders on to these and nothing else. Make sure that the quality of all that you do—whether an email, an idea, your interactions with others—is golden, and that it is unique to your personal dreams, your goals, your desires. The lynchpin of a sunny present is treating each task with the same bright attitude no matter how your mind or emotions want to react. Gotta pay that parking ticket? Great! Have to send an email to a very challenging family member? Perfect, it is taken care of. Have to call the corporation that is currently trying to build a corporate pipeline on sacred American Indian land and complain loudly? You got it. Do all with integrity, with focus in the present. With your words made of compassion and your physical self embodying ease, not contraction. Think about details, think about building more structures in your daily life that will let you feel more relaxed.

Focus is key here. The work that you are doing must be enjoyable—or at the very least, hold a promise of helping you far into the future. I think of commitment and sacrifice: not just through career, but through self-development, self-discipline in general and changing behavioral habits. If you totally hate your current job, find ways to utilize it so that moving into better work habits is second nature. Make the most out of it in different ways; even if it is just using the time at your current position to network for greater opportunities. Become more engaged with your present state. If your present state is telling you it is finally time to initiate new junctures, diligently begin doing so at this time. Pulling from the Judgement card, what are messages from the past telling you to revisit now? What themes are coming up for you in your life? Is it prioritizing your health, an art practice, or simply incorporating more rest into your daily life? Think about your most beloved ancestor. The one who adored you and knew your truly innocent nature. What would be a message from them at this time about what it is you are doing? Soak in those messages and keep moving, knowing you are acting on what is correct for you.

The only thing to fear at this time is NOT carrying out your highest soul’s calling. Sitting on your laurels is not recommended at this time. Getting clear and putting in the work is. Even if that work is writing letters to everyone who ever screwed you and burning them while you pray for the peace of their souls. Even if that work is Epsom salt baths and longer dream time with bits of tourmaline and malachite under your pillow.

In the future placement is the 6 of wands. Bringing back the ladders I spoke of before, this is a card of victory and promotion. The key here is peace and leadership. I oftentimes tell my clients to work backwards from their future card. If you knew you would be successful in your endeavors, how would you act in the present moment? What would change for you, how would you treat yourself? The 6 of wands has confidence: the knowing that one’s true nature is peace is a precious gift. In your own life, where must you promote yourself? No one will give you anything if you don’t ask for it. We will be increasingly pulled to walk our walk. With this card, I think about how the battles that we choose to NOT become embroiled in are many times more important than the ones we do choose to take on. Similarly, how we deal with confrontation is so very important. Is our highest mission harmony and the greatest good of all? Check yourself first, then continue to act from that place in all that you undertake. This is not a reaction card. This is an “I’m owning my accountability and the responsibility of my words and actions and are acting accordingly” card.

When wands come up, I think of energy. How we utilize, how we move it, how it acts as a light in the dark or burns us up entirely. Where are you being strategic with your energy? How is your energy usage backfiring on you, how will you conserve it through the autumn? The 6 of wands is about wholeness, about inspiring others through total alignment. Increasingly, we will be getting forced to examine our alignment between our energy/actions and our higher selves. Between our careers and our key values. About how we serve others and how we serve ourselves. When we aren’t using up energy fighting the different parts of ourselves the more important parts of our passions rise up. We can use this desire to act as our warmth and illumination through this darkening, colder time of the year. If your energy is leaking out through automatic reaction, how might you get more conscious? How might you transform, draining “negative” life force energy into helpful energy? Because energy is energy. That’s all it is—it can be wielded and utilized anyway we choose. Compost it, purge it, burn it to the ground, to grow new seedlings to come up in the spring. Invite in your deepest messages and desires to come to you in dreams, in your daily life. Recenter, dig in, work towards the greater refinement of collective, promoted peace.